Chasing Birds and Anthony's Blessing

I remember when I first got married how important my job was to me. I loved being a nurse, and I don't mind saying I was a pretty awesome peds nurse. I absolutely loved taking care of the kids. I always came home happy. Kids do that to me. They make me so happy. I'm so grateful for that time in my life, and all I learned. I still love being a nurse, and love even more that I rarely have to go in to work. It makes me sad that I have less than a month now before I have to start leaving my boys, even though it is really only twice a month. Now, my favorite thing to do is chase birds with my boys. It is really Josh that chases, as I carry little Anthony behind and encourage Josh. He never catches them, of course, then runs back to where I follow. He is breathless as he gasps, "Chase the birds! They flew away!" I love it! He is so cute and sweet, and such a little handful! We're in the process of potty training Josh right now. He has his good days, and his very defiant days. Those are the days when Matt gets home and I hand the boys over and take a bath! But I absolutely love being a mom. It is a bit scary, looking at the responsibility involved in raising a child. Making sure physical, emotional, and spiritual needs are met. Hopefully, I will do a decent job raising these sweet spirits the Lord has entrusted in my care. If you look at the background of the top pic, you can see the birds Josh is chasing, as he waves his hands in the air and screams. I'm so glad I got the picture!
I should add a bit about my little Anthony. Lately he's been going to bed around 10 or 11, then sleeps till 6:30 or 7. It is quite nice! I wish he'd go back to sleep after I feed him, but he is up for a couple of hours, then goes to sleep right around when Josh gets up. I hope to someday get to sleep in again! He is the happiest baby! He has a cute little giggle, loves to talk, and he sticks his tongue out when he smiles. It is so fun having him in our family!

Anthony the day of his baby blessing, June 12th. It was a perfect day, not too hot or cold. We held it at our house, just having a bishopric member come over. It was a beautiful blessing, perfect for my beautiful little baby!

Had to get the brothers in a picture. Josh's face is a mess from all the treats he ate!

Little mischief maker kept pouring water into a cup then dumping it out all over the patio and grass. Fortunately, little got in the house!

We decided to try and get a family picture since we were all dressed up. First, we wanted one in the house.

We decided the backyard was a pretty place for a pic, so took the camera outside. Anthony was starting to fuss, Josh was looking in the grass for bugs, and Matt and I were laughing in absolute frustration!

Best pic we could get. Josh totally cheesed it, Anthony was crying like crazy. But that's kinda how life is now, so the picture fits!

We've done a lot of yard work lately, so we borrowed my awesome bro's truck to take everything to the dump. Josh thought it was the coolest thing ever riding in a truck to the dump, then crashed on the way home after the 3rd trip to the dump. Thanks again, Dave and Tami!

Josh loves running through the sprinklers. His favorite part of it is chasing me!

Anthony smiling while I talk to him. I have better ones, but they are not on the computer yet, and I'm too lazy to get the camera out right now:)

Josh sometimes doesn't like to go to bed, and crashes next to the door cause he likes to look under and try to see us.

We took the kids to the park to fly a kite.

I love this one of Matt and Anthony. Matt loves to hold him like this and play with him, and Anthony always gives him good grins and giggles!

Josh's smile here reminds me of a picture of me when I was younger. It's nice to occasionally see glimpses of me in my husband's clone!

Happy Memorial Day!

I was debating whether or not it was appropriate to write my Happy Memorial Day title of my blog, but then, when talking with my cute hubby, we both decided it really is a happy day. It provides an excuse to reminisce about lost loved ones. I love going to the cemetery. I find it very peaceful. I know that one reason I love going is it brings back very fond memories. My grandpa used to go for walks every day. My brothers and I lived a block away from my grandparents while growing up. We always wanted to go on these walks with him, and, of course, the very best place to walk was Spanish Fork Cemetery. We spent so much time there! I have been very blessed in my life not to lose many loved ones until recently. We would visit the graves of Grandma and Grandpa's family, all of whom died before I was even born. It was very hard losing my grandma. She was one of my 3 best friends (my mom and sis being the other 2). She was a second mother to me. When I lived in Spanish Fork, my brothers and I would go to her house before school, after school, after church, and pretty much whenever our mom would let us. She was always excited to see us. We always felt welcome, and she always had candy for us in her apron pockets. She played the organ at church on Sundays. We would take turns sitting at the organ next to Grandma. If we played the keys we had to sit back on the bench. I don't think any of us made it an entire sacrament meeting without sneaking a note or two on the organ. I miss her so much. It has been 2 years since she passed away. I was blessed to be with her when she died. It was a horrible experience knowing she was leaving, but I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. I wanted to take my Anthony to the cemetery to introduce them. I know, it's silly. It's a grave, she's not there, and I'm sure Anthony still gets to see her. But I wanted to introduce them anyway:)

The introduction to Grandma Wood (Matt was a bit sneaky taking some pics).

Josh loved the decorations at the grave.

After the cemetery, I took Anthony to meet Grandpa Wood. He was sick after Anthony was born, and just barely is getting over it, so I just barely got to take my baby to meet him. Grandpa was tickled that I stopped at the cemetery first. It made his day:)

Backtracking to the hospital. This is the day I went home, and the flowers Matt bought me.

My mom finished making this quilt the day Anthony was born. She brought it to the hospital to make sure we had it when we got home. I wanted monsters on his blanket because he was so active, I thought for certain he was going to be a monster baby! I was very wrong! He is the happiest, most content baby ever! He almost never fusses! It is wonderful! Now if we could just get him sleeping:)

Josh is such a little helper! He has to mow the lawn with Matt every week. He loves his little lawnmower, and even parks it in the garage next to our real lawnmower.

We got home the day before Easter. Josh had so much fun finding candy, then wanted his picture taken with "Josh's baby," as he calls the baby.

Family movie night on the bed. We always watch Scooby Doo, because it is Josh's favorite cartoon in the entire world at the moment:)

My little sis jumping on the trampoline with Josh. He loves to jump!

Gizmo doesn't mind the baby so far. The baby never pulls his fur!

We took Josh to Pirate Island. They have lights that flash on and off in the trees and look like fireflies. Josh got so excited when he saw them!

Josh takes shooting guns very seriously!

Josh adores his little brother! The biggest problem I have is trying not to let Josh suffocate the poor kid! He never leaves him alone! But I'm good as long as he loves his little bro:)

Josh wanted to be swaddled just like baby

My sleeping angels

Josh loves to dance to the musice when I play the piano.

My cute little baby.

Josh's cousin, Kyle, came to visit after the baby was born. They had a lot of fun chasing, shooting, and rolling around on the floor.

Josh loves holding the baby.

I love Anthony's facial expressions. He's starting to give some good smiles. Hopefully we'll eventually be able to catch one on camera!

Josh playing peek-a-boo through Grandma's legs.

Matt pruned our tree, and Josh had to climb the tree, just like daddy!

My baby is nearly 6 weeks old now! He is growing so fast! Starting to get some nice rolls in his legs, and cute little chubby cheeks!

I hope all of you enjoyed your Memorial Day as much as I did!

Anthony David Carlson

Well, my baby is here! I'm so excited and happy:) I wasn't going to blog until I got out of the hospital, but now I'm just sitting all day on a Friday, I don't go home till tomorrow, and Anthony is just snoozing on my lap. So here it is!
I wanted so bad to go into labor last Friday so I wouldn't have to work. I walked and walked for hours, I was working out all week that week,and I would clean and clean. Nothing. But Sunday after work I started contracting a ton. Well, I didn't want to have the baby that day. I talked with Matt and we both thought Tuesday or Wednesday would be ideal. I told Matt the perfect day would be Wednesday around 6, because then he could work the next day and Friday, then get to spend the weekend, entire week, and another weekend with me! I didn't want him to waste his days off with me in the hospital. So Monday rolled around, and all contractions stopped. Completely. I walked for 4 hours that day, did an hour long workout, and nothing! Tuesday came, I walked another 3 hours that day, and still nothing! It appeared I would not have my boy till the scheduled day on Saturday. I was on the phone with my mom, and told her I was way too stressed out! Instead of doing a hard core workout that night, I did yoga. I didn't clean anything. I sat and relaxed and enjoyed a movie with my sweet husband. Then I didn't get any sleep that night because I started contracting. It was sporadic, but they were getting more painful. Wednesday was a great day! My doctor appointment wasn't till afternoon and would ruin my whole day, but they called and asked if I would come within the hour. Oh, yeah! Rushed to get Josh and me ready, then left (both of us looked pretty rough, no hair done, but we were in a hurry!). I told the doctor I was contracting a lot more, and he offered to check my cervix. No thanks! With Josh, I never made it past a 3, so I saw no point. Dr. Bean told me if I started having contractions every 5 minutes or more for 2 hours, to go to labor and delivery because I was high risk since my c-section. They started the second I left the office. I drove over to visit with my mom, and my contractions were not slowing down, just getting more intense. So I left Josh with my mom and headed to the hospital. I gave Matt a heads up, but told him not to leave work unless I called. He asked if he could tell his family. NO!!! There was to be not one person other than my mom to know what I was doing until I knew for sure what exactly was going to happen. I know it's silly, but at the time it was very important! I got to the hospital around 1:30. They checked me "to make sure I hadn't progressed to a 5." I was a 1. I had to giggle at that! They watched me for an hour and saw I was contracting. They weren't horribly painful, still pretty short, but very consistent. My doctor was doing another c-section, so he said they'd monitor me till he was done and if I was still contracting, they'd take my boy out. My nurse said it would go pretty fast once they decided, so she recommended having Matt come right away. Matt asked again if he could tell his family. NO!!! You see, I still didn't know what was going on. I gave my mom the same orders, that no one was to know until I knew for sure. So Matt came, then the doctor a half hour later. Baby time! Yes, Matt, now you can tell your family, and yes, mom, you can tell everyone as well. I didn't call anyone, just sent out a mass text to my bros and a couple of friends. Now, I was expecting an hour or two after they said it was a go, but no one counted on my IV difficulty. I had to have a full bag of fluid before they would do the spinal. It was a positional IV, though, and it took nearly 2 hours to get the bag in. They brought me back around 5:30 give or take. I kind of feel bad about kicking a nurse in the OR. She was so sweet holding my hands while I got the spinal-Matt was getting his OR outfit on. I felt the buzz in my leg and it kicked straight out! She thought it was funny, and I didn't kick too hard, but I still feel bad! Now, as I went numb, I started worrying about the spinal not working and having severe pain as they cut me open. It happened to my mom, I didn't just pull the thought out of a hat. My pulse was in the 150's, I was so nervous! Matt walked in, and the anesthesiologist said, "Wow, you must have quite the calming influence! The second you walked in her pulse went down to 100!" Matt has been strutting ever since! He now thinks he is the best thing to hit earth! But I think he is too, so I won't complain:) I felt no pain during the procedure. In fact, it felt really funny, because I could tell some things they were doing, and could feel all the tugging and pulling, it just didn't hurt! I was wide awake for the whole thing this time, and will never forget my little Anthony's first cry! They lifted him high above the drape so I could take a peak before he was whisked off to get cleaned up. I then found out it was very good they decided to delver him when they did, because there was meconium in the amniotic fluid. They checked his vocal cords, though, and it didn't appear he'd got any in his lungs, thank goodness! I know it's pretty common for the baby to get distressed and have meconium, but you still can't help but worry some! I listened as they shouted out his birth weight and height, then went on about how cute and tiny he was. 6lb 7oz, 18 inches! Born at 6:01 PM. All of my family guessed around the 6 lb 5oz to 6lb 9 oz range. Matt guessed 7lb 1oz-sorry hubby:) My final guess was 6lb 6oz, so I was fairly close. I decided on that one because even though he felt huge, I didn't get huge. So now I have a baby with hair, and he's a cute little thing and a good little nurser, and the poor kid was just circumcised, so now he's pretty miserable! So sorry about the insanely long post, but I didn't want to forget things when I get around to writing it in my journal. I'll just leave some pics for now!

The day before I had Anthony: 38 weeks and 3 days

Admitted to the hospital and waiting nervously to go to the OR

He's here! He had a good little cry, and had little old man wrinkles all over his forehead!

Wrinkles disappearing, starting to relax as they listen to his heart.

Chillin' in the basinette, waiting for Mom to recover from the c-section and meet him in mother/baby

The first time I got to hold my new little guy! I got to give him a little kiss on the forehead in the OR, but my arms were stretched out on the boards to the table, so I didn't get to touch him until I was finished with surgery.

Our new family (minus our Gizmo). Can you believe how much bigger Josh is than our little Anthony? Crazy!!!

My favorite boys

Josh was so excited to help hold his little brother! He went right up and pet his face, saying,"Baby!"

Josh gave Anthony a kiss on the head before saying, "Bye, Anthony!" He was anxious to get to my mom's to have a sleepover with Alyse:)

After visitors left, Matt got to have some alone time with his boy. Matt is truly a proud Daddy:)

And I got a bit of alone time too, snuggling my little man while I burped him. I love how he curls up! He wouldn't nurse unless I removed all his blankets. He eats, then cries till he's swaddled again:)

So this is our new family, and I can't even begin to say how happy I am!

He's here!

Anthony David Carlson
Born April 20, 2011
6lbs 7oz, 18 inches
6:01 PM

Just letting you know the basic stats! I'll post pics when I get out of the hospital, but all is well, and he is just a sweet baby! I'm so happy he's finally here!